I'd like to know the argument against Josh Donaldson. Is it because it's likely a one-off season? More value than Miggy, changed his primary position from C to 3B, took his team to the playoffs, didn't choke down the stretch, in fact his best month by far was September when he led his team to a division title. These are things that the pro-Miggy side pointed to last season as to why Cabrera was more deserving than Trout. But now, it seems that they don't matter anymore, and it becomes apparent that the only things that ever mattered were triple crown stats. Which is fine... but if you're gonna believe in that crap, at least don't make up a bunch of nonsense to try to make it seem reasonable.

Skin Blues wrote:I'd like to know the argument against Josh Donaldson. Is it because it's likely a one-off season? More value than Miggy, changed his primary position from C to 3B, took his team to the playoffs, didn't choke down the stretch, in fact his best month by far was September when he led his team to a division title. These are things that the pro-Miggy side pointed to last season as to why Cabrera was more deserving than Trout. But now, it seems that they don't matter anymore, and it becomes apparent that the only things that ever mattered were triple crown stats. Which is fine... but if you're gonna believe in that crap, at least don't make up a bunch of nonsense to try to make it seem reasonable.

Agree 100%

I guess to me Most Valuable Player I take more literally than for stats. I could see someone wanting to vote for Donaldson and if Miggy won last year you're right, Donaldson should be a front runner this year. I guess we will see how much stats are worth to voters now. Seems to be more than they used to be. I think the hall of fame is partly to blame. Fewer are getting in lately, so clean and pure stats weigh heavily on MVP votes. Which is why I think so many pick Cabrera to win.

Skin Blues wrote:I'd like to know the argument against Josh Donaldson. Is it because it's likely a one-off season? More value than Miggy, changed his primary position from C to 3B, took his team to the playoffs, didn't choke down the stretch, in fact his best month by far was September when he led his team to a division title. These are things that the pro-Miggy side pointed to last season as to why Cabrera was more deserving than Trout. But now, it seems that they don't matter anymore, and it becomes apparent that the only things that ever mattered were triple crown stats. Which is fine... but if you're gonna believe in that crap, at least don't make up a bunch of nonsense to try to make it seem reasonable.

Yup. There is not much of an argument for Miggy winning this year unless you're just going to ignore defense (which people will).

Trout was the best player in baseball (again), but I don't doubt for a second that Miggy wins it.

Skin Blues wrote:I'd like to know the argument against Josh Donaldson. Is it because it's likely a one-off season? More value than Miggy, changed his primary position from C to 3B, took his team to the playoffs, didn't choke down the stretch, in fact his best month by far was September when he led his team to a division title. These are things that the pro-Miggy side pointed to last season as to why Cabrera was more deserving than Trout. But now, it seems that they don't matter anymore, and it becomes apparent that the only things that ever mattered were triple crown stats. Which is fine... but if you're gonna believe in that crap, at least don't make up a bunch of nonsense to try to make it seem reasonable.

Skin Blues wrote:I'd like to know the argument against Josh Donaldson. Is it because it's likely a one-off season? More value than Miggy, changed his primary position from C to 3B, took his team to the playoffs, didn't choke down the stretch, in fact his best month by far was September when he led his team to a division title. These are things that the pro-Miggy side pointed to last season as to why Cabrera was more deserving than Trout. But now, it seems that they don't matter anymore, and it becomes apparent that the only things that ever mattered were triple crown stats. Which is fine... but if you're gonna believe in that crap, at least don't make up a bunch of nonsense to try to make it seem reasonable.

SpecialFNK wrote:Donaldson is good, but MVP? really? I don't see any statistic that is outstanding. 15th in R. 14th in H. 13th in D. 20th in HR. 10th in RBI. 10th in AVG. 6th in OBP. 9th in SLG. 7th in OPS.

He was arguably one of the best defensive 3B in baseball last season. Via FanGraphs he posted a 7.7 WAR, ahead of Cabrera's 7.6, and trailing only Andrew McCutchen (8.2) and Mike Trout (10.4). Again, 18 months from now nobody will even remember who the AL MVP was (off the top of my head I can't remember the AL MVP from any specific year prior to 2012... I'm pretty sure Josh Hamilton won one, but I don't know if it was 2011 or 2010, or if maybe he didn't even win one at all -- and I follow baseball more than most). It's a silly award that I just don't care about. Give it to one of the top guys on the season and let's move on. Splitting hairs amongst the Top 5 or so is silly, since next week we'll have a new metric, or an updated formula, that rearranges their order of value, so we can get gung ho about a different guy instead.

SpecialFNK wrote:Donaldson is good, but MVP? really? I don't see any statistic that is outstanding. 15th in R. 14th in H. 13th in D. 20th in HR. 10th in RBI. 10th in AVG. 6th in OBP. 9th in SLG. 7th in OPS.

Defense and Base Running do mean something...and from the looks of it they mean a whole lot more than you are acknowledging.